Records, shocks and comebacks!
October 1st 2007 20:23
In shanghai local lad Liu Xiang was beaten soundly by young Dayron Robles in the 110m hurdles – after a swift start the china man was in contention but Robles superior flat speed made the telling difference.
Another Osaka gold medallist to bite the dust was Tyson Gay who was upset by training partner Wallace Spearmon who ran a personal best of 9.96 in a rare 100m outing.
Yet another solid performance came from Sanya Richards, this time in the 100m where she ran 10.97 – her first foray into sub 11 territory behind winner Veronica Campbell who recorded 10.90.
It was a night for well known athletes to have a bash at rarely run distances as distance legend Keninesa Bekele tried his hand at the 1500m, placing second behind Kenyan Daniel Komen.
In Yokohama 2 days later severe weather conditions wrought havoc on the competition with most athletes recording sub par times due to the wind, rain and cold.
The main casualty of the meet was Asafa Powell who looked to have sustained a hamstring pull whilst running the 200m.
The pole vault was devastated as no male jumper recorded a mark and only Vicky Parnov made it over the bar in the women’s section.
Kerron Clement failed to win in the 400m hurdles, losing to American team mate Bershawn Jackson who ran 49.80.
It was a far more eventful weekend on the roads though as Haille Gebrselassie broke the Marathon world record with a new time of 2:04:26 in Berlin on Sunday.
It is the 24th world record or world best to be set by the Ethiopian distance legend as he surpassed the previous mark set by Paul Tergat by 29 seconds.
The 34 year old commented, “That (the marathon world record) is something different in comparison to the 5,000m or 10,000m, because the Marathon is the king of the distance races.”
It was also a successful day for the Berlin marathon as a whole as 40,215 runners from 110 different nations attended.
In Newcastle the women’s marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe made her long awaited return to competition after 21 months out whilst pregnant with baby Isla and a related back injury.
The 33 year old had to play second fiddle to American 10,000m world bronze medallist Kara Goucher who ran a superb race to 1:06:57 – 56 seconds ahead of Radcliffe.
The result was made all the more impressive by the fact that the half mile event is the furthest she has ever run competitively.
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